Bleader

Dinner & a Show, Friday, 5/6

Pairing a girl and a "Goat," and enjoying a taste of Belgium before watching the age-old battle of humans versus the undead.

Show: The Goat or, Who is Sylvia “A prominent architect—a man with a long and satisfying marriage, a well-adjusted gay son, a Manhattan duplex, and a brand new Pritzker Prize—comes out of the hayloft, as it were, and admits to having relations with a female goat,” writes Tony Adler. “It's not just physical, either. He says he's in love with the soulful creature (‘Those eyes!’) and won't let the relationship go. You can take Edward Albee's 2002 play any number of ways. As an absurd-case look at social norms. A satire on theatrical conventions. An accomplished playwright's challenge to himself, to see whether he can pull off something really ridiculous. But in this Remy Bumppo Theatre production directed by James Bohnen, the piece comes off, finally, as a deeply unsettling exploration of what we mean when we talk about love. Unsettling not because it involves a goat, but because it's so surprisingly, surpassingly human.”

Dinner:Girl & the Goat “The menu of rustic, shareable small plates, broken down into vegetable, fish, and meat categories, is strongly seasonal. Unorthodox but not off-putting combinations are Chef Stephanie Izard's thing: shaved root vegetables and blueberries in anchovy-buttermilk dressing, smoked goat pizza with sour cherries,” writes Mike Sula. “She's particularly fond of mammalian garnishes on fish dishes; on one visit, a hiramasa crudo sprinkled with crispy lardons and drizzled with Peruvian chile aioli was one of the most delicate things I put in my mouth. Most everything else was simply and appealingly arranged: snails and goat meatballs with romesco and bagna cauda nestled in a crock, shisito pepper roulette (one in ten will burn your face off) played out in a bowl, drizzled with creamy Parmesan-miso sauce. … This is my favorite new opening this year, only in small part because it's one of those rare instances where the hoopla is entirely justified.”

Show:Stake Land"An orphaned teenager (Connor Paolo) and a lone hunter (Nick Damici, who cowrote the script) search for safety in a postapocalyptic Rust Belt, defending themselves against vampires and white militia outfits," writes Ben Sachs. "Given the pulpy setup, this second feature by Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street) is surprisingly understated and even wistful. Mickle combines George Romero's social commentary and Terence Malick's spacey poetics, yet the expressive rendering of rural locations is distinctive and the vision of societal breakdown fully imagined (in one inspired scene, refugees holding a dance at their makeshift camp suggest pilgrims in a John Ford western). In fact Mickle's observation of a devastated working-class America is so sharp that the horror elements, though effectively handled, come to feel like an afterthought." With Kelly McGillis.

Dinner:Leopold Leopold “includes primary touchstones of that country's cuisine: mussels, fries, rabbit (three dishes!), varied applications of mustard, and of course brussels sprouts,” Sula writes. “Of the two preparations of moules frites—one simmered with leeks and cured pork cheek in spicy California-brewed Devotion Ale and the other in a creamy white wine curry—I prefer the latter for its perfumed subtlety, which puts the focus on the plump, fresh mussels. And the early reports I'd heard that the accompanying spuds were too limp proved unfounded on the three occasions I tried them—fried near perfect, durably crispy and salty even when conscripted in poutine, glopped by gooey curds and merguez gravy. Belgians are apparently fond of rabbit, and they'd likely be impressed by Hedin's liver and loin terrine fattened up with pork belly and given a tart counterpoint with a pickled baby-carrot salad.”